


some kind of understanding

by scepticallyopenminded



Series: 30 Days of Writing Challenge [20]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Basketball Player Derek, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-15 13:58:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3449711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scepticallyopenminded/pseuds/scepticallyopenminded
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey,” he hears, and he turns his head to see Derek Hale, sitting there in his Camaro, window rolled down, looking warm and dry and okay, so he and Derek had never really gotten along (Derek, being a basketball star and arrogant and kind of a jerk, sometimes, and Stiles, the bench-warming lacrosse player who was, yeah, sometimes a little spastic), so Stiles didn’t feel too bad about hating him right then, because he was dry and warm. He just stares at Derek.</p>
            </blockquote>





	some kind of understanding

**Author's Note:**

> title from "Leather Jacket" by Arkells because that song totally did inspire this fic completely.

Stiles is waiting for the bus when the car pulls up next to him. On a normal day when he didn’t have the jeep he’d walk to school, just a fifteen minute walk through the woods from his house, but he’d bruised his ribs the other day at lacrosse practice, and walking hurt. Also under usual circumstances, waiting for the bus wasn’t a terrible ordeal. Today, though, it was raining. Hard. And he was hating his life.

“Hey,” he hears, and he turns his head to see Derek Hale, sitting there in his Camaro, window rolled down, looking warm and dry and okay, so he and Derek had never _really_ gotten along (Derek, being a basketball star and arrogant and kind of a jerk, sometimes, and Stiles, the bench-warming lacrosse player who was, yeah, sometimes a little spastic), so Stiles didn’t feel too bad about hating him right then, because he was _dry and warm_. He just stares at Derek.

“Hey.”

There’s a pause, and then, “Do you need a ride?”

Stiles, well, he’s completely shocked. Like, actually. Because, again, let him repeat: he and Derek have never really gotten along.

“Um,” he says, but Derek raises his eyebrows, and the rain seems to pick up just a bit then, and Stiles – well, he’s willing to overlook a few comments here and there for the chance to ride in a Camaro, with Derek Hale, instead of standing in the rain waiting for a bus.

“Thanks,” he says as he opens the door, and Derek just smiles at him. He’s soaked, and wondering a bit why Derek doesn’t seem at all worried about his leather seats, but hey, he’s completely not complaining about this. Especially, when, after Stiles closes the door, Derek looks at him and frowns.

“You look frozen. You want my jacket?”

Again, Stiles has to just stare at him, at least for a moment, because – _what_. That jacket is something of a legend; it was his dad’s, who had died just after his little sister Cora was born, and that he had worn almost every day since then. It was nice, leather, fit him pretty well, and essentially whenever it was under seventy degrees he wore it whenever he was outside. It was rumoured that his ex-girlfriend had once asked him to wear it and he’d said no. So for him to be offering it to Stiles – Stiles figures he must look really cold.

Even then, he’s pretty shocked. He must not say anything for a while, because next he knows Derek’s looking concerned and asking, “Stiles, are you okay?”

“You just offered me your leather jacket,” he blurts out, and Derek looks surprised.

“Well, yeah. You look really cold. You want it?”

“But,” Stiles starts, then he stops, shakes his head, “Yeah, sure, thanks.”

Derek shrugs off the jacket, handing it over to Stiles, who puts it on and – ooh. Warm. Really warm. And – okay, Stiles _does not_ sniff it. But he can smell it, and it smells a little – a little woodsy, a little like aftershave, maybe a little like sweat, and a lot like leather.

It’s – shut up – it’s a nice smell. Derek starts driving then, giving Stiles one last look before he turns his attention to the road.

“Where’s your jeep, by the way?” he asks, and again, Stiles is a little surprised. His jeep is pretty well-known around the school, it’s bright blue and a jeep and sometimes can be pretty loud, it’s an old vehicle. But still. It surprises him a little that Derek noticed.

“Um, the transmission broke down the other day. It’s getting fixed, should be ready to go by tomorrow.”

“Hmmm,” Derek hums, flicking on his blinker as they turn.

“Why are you doing this?” Stiles can’t help himself, and Derek looks over to him with another surprised expression.

“It’s not obvious?” he asks, and Stiles shakes his head.

“I mean, I’m sure you’re nice and all, but like, not to me.”

Derek scrunches his eyebrows together as he turns into the school parking lot.

“I was pretty subtle about it, I’ll admit, but I thought I could be because you’re really observant and I didn’t want to be all up in your face about it.”

Derek stops there, and Stiles stares at him, waiting for him to continue.

“Didn’t want to be all up in my face about what?” he asks when Derek doesn’t continue, and Derek parks the car before he continues.

“I like you.”

Stiles chokes on his own spit.

“You what? You like me? Like, want to do the horizontal tango with me like me or…?” he rushes out, his mouth spitting out the words much faster than his brain can process them. Derek makes a face at the last part, like he regrets ever saying anything, but nods.

“Yeah. Yeah, that. Maybe I was being too subtle.”

“Definitely,” Stiles says, because he tries to think about a time over the past few weeks he’d noticed anything off about Derek – there was the fact that he’d been coming to the lacrosse games, which he’d never done before, but then, Stiles had just thought it was because he had some friends on the lacrosse team – and that one time when he’d given Stiles a little hand-drawn comic as a card for his birthday a few weeks earlier – okay, so maybe it wasn’t that far off base that Derek was giving him a ride or that he had a crush on him.

“Or maybe not,” he amends.

“So you wanna go out on Friday?” Derek asks then, and Stiles still can’t help but feel just a little surprised. He pauses, a moment.

“Only if I can keep the jacket until then,” he tries, and maybe he can be a successful flirt, because Derek smiles really brightly at that, and Stiles feels pretty good about the possibilities in his future, and he pulls the jacket a little tighter around him as they get out of the car. 

**Author's Note:**

> find me at [asocialfoxpaw](http://asocialfoxpaw.tumblr.com/) or [onedirectionaremyfirstlove](http://onedirectionaremyfirstlove.tumblr.com/)


End file.
